Get the Gingerbread Launcher for Your Froyo Android Phone

If you've seen all of the news and announcements around Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" and can't wait to get some of those features on your phone, one of them is already available in the Android App Market: the Launcher app that will be included.

If you've seen all of the news and announcements around Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" and can't wait to get some of those features on your phone, one of them is already available in the Android App Market: the Launcher app that will be included with 2.3 starts rolling out to current Android devices.

The new Launcher app looks a lot like the current version that's pre-installed on Android 2.2 "Froyo," but it boasts a few speed improvements, a few tweaks, and if your stock launcher is old or cluttered with pre-installed apps and widgets from your manufacturer, this one will give you a fresh start.

The new Launcher app is available in the Android App Market - just search for Launcher and it'll appear. Alternatively you can use the QR code here to download it. The new Launcher itself doesn't change a lot visually from the 2.2 version: you still get the home screens you used to have, with the icon in the center to open up your list of installed apps, and two shortcut buttons on either side that usually open the Phone app and Browser app by default.

Once you have the new launcher installed, you can add back the widgets and icons that you'd like to have on the home screen so it works for you. If you tap the home button after you install the new launcher, you'll be prompted to select which launcher you want to open when you install it. From here you can check a box to set the new Launcher as the default.

Even though the new Launcher app doesn't really look incredibly different or change the way you interact with your phone, the fact that it's available already in the Market says a lot. The new Launcher is a little faster, and probably trims down some of the bloat, which is especially useful for Android devices that are running 2.2 but are storage constrained for core Android apps, like the original Motorola Droid and the Droid Eris.